commonly asked questions

Welcome to the online home of The Artist's Way author Julia Cameron. The Artist’s Way began with Julia sharing her ideas with a few artists in her living room. Now, after selling over five million copies of The Artist’s Way and teaching her creativity tools around the world in lecture and workshop form, she’s thrilled to share her methods online.

Congratulations! This is worth celebrating! Julia suggests that you continue your practice of Morning Pages, Artist Dates, walks, and writing for guidance, and go out and make art! If you would like to do another course, Julia's books are arranged in categories so that you can easily find the program that is the next right step for you.

The Video Courses are Julia, filmed in her living room in Santa Fe, reflecting on the concepts in the books through her fifty-five years of writer's experience. The videos vary in length, but add up to approximately 2.5 hours per video course. They supplement the books, and simulate her live teaching. Lifetime access to this web-based class will give users the flexibility to watch-- and re-watch-- video lectures from their living room, kitchen table or morning commute.

It is recommended to use the video courses in conjunction with the associated book

Yes! You may send mail to:

No. Anyone can teach the course or begin a cluster by using the book and following the guidelines below. It is Julia's belief that creative recovery at its best is a nonhierarchical, peer-run, collective process.

There are no “accredited” Artist’s Way teachers. Avoid anyone who offers to “certify” you as a teacher—there is no such thing.

Guidelines

1. Use a twelve-week process with a weekly gathering of two to three hours. Morning Pages and Artist Dates are expected of everyone in the group, including facilitators. The tasks are done in order in the group, with everyone, including the facilitator, answering the questions and then sharing the answers in clusters of four. Do only one chapter per week. Do not share your Morning Pages with the group or anyone else. Do not reread your Morning Pages until later in the course, if you are asked to do so by your facilitator or your own inner guidance.
   
   
2. Avoid self-appointed gurus. If there is any emissary, it is the work itself, as a collective composed of all who take the course. Each person is equally a part of the collective, no one more than another. While there may be “teachers,” facilitators who are relied on during the twelve-week period to guide others down the path, such people need to be prepared to share their own material and take their own creative risks. This is an egalitarian group process rather than a hierarchical one.
   
   
3. Listen. We each get what we need from the group process by sharing our own material and by listening to others. We do not need to comment on another person’s sharing in order to help that person. We must refrain from trying to “fix” someone else. When listening, go around the circle without commenting unduly on what is heard. We are intended to witness, not control, one another. When sharing tasks, clusters of four within the larger groups are important: five tends to become unwieldy; three doesn’t allow for enough contrasting experience. Obviously, not all groups can be divided into equal fours. Just try to do so whenever you can.
   
   
4. Respect one another. Be certain that respect and compassion are afforded equally to every member. No one is to be “fixed” by another member of the group. This is a deep and powerful internal process. Love is important. Be kind to yourself. Be kind to one another.
   
   
5. Expect change in the group makeup. Many people will—some will not—fulfill the twelve-week process. Many groups have a tendency to drive apart at eight to ten weeks (creative U-turns) because of the feelings of loss associated with the group’s ending. Face the truth as a group; it may help you stay together. There is often a rebellious or fallow period after the twelve weeks, with people returning to the disciplines later. When they do, they continue to find the process unfolding within them a year, a few years, or many years later.
   
   
6. Be autonomous. You cannot control your own process, let alone anyone else’s. Even when you feel nothing is happening, you will be changing at great velocity. This change is a deepening into your own intuition, your own creative self. The structure of the course is about safely getting across the bridge into new realms of creative spiritual awareness. Know that you will feel rebellious occasionally—that you won’t want to do all of your Morning Pages and exercises at times in the twelve weeks. Relapse is okay. You cannot do this process perfectly, so relax, be kind to yourself, and hold on to your hat.
   
   
7. Be self-loving. If the facilitator feels somehow “wrong” to you, change clusters or start your own. Seek your own inner guidance rather than outer guidance. You are seeking to form an artist-to-artist relationship with the Great Creator. You have your own answers within you. Keep gurus at bay.

A note from Julia:

The Artist’s Way and all my other “teaching” books are the distillate of fifty-five years of artistic practice. They are experiential books intended to teach people to process and transform life through acts of creativity. All books and all creative clusters should be practiced through creative action, not through theory.

It is my belief and my experience as a teacher that all of us are healthy enough to practice creativity. It is our human birthright and something we can do gently and collectively. Creativity is like breathing—pointers may help, but we do the process ourselves. Creative clusters, where we gather as peers to develop our strength, are best regarded as communal gatherings, where creative beings raise, celebrate, and actualize the creative power that runs through us all.

© 2024 Julia Cameron Live. All Rights Reserved.